The Sprint Free Lane

If you could be a sprinter, you would.
We get more rest.
We don't train as far but we go faster.
Every move matters.
We're fast twitch. We're strong. We're fierce.
It's adrenalin
We get the glory

50's & 100's are our thing, we wish we could race 25's & 75's, we think of 200's as distance & tend to split longer races quite badly because we have no sense of pace. But it proves to ourselves, our coaches & friends that we have absolutely no business in any race over a 100.

Re: The Sprint Freestyle Lane

Recently I've been stringing my 25yd sprints into 100yd swims. First 25 is all out, then use the remaining 75yds as a recovery swim. Will do sets of 3s on a 2:00 interval, rest 1 minute, then start the next set. I'll also change things up by doing the 1st 25 no breath, hit the turn, and try 3 sdks + 2 strokes before my 1st breath.

As an aside, I find sprint training tougher than workout swimming. It's shorter, but hurts much more (at least for me).

Re: The Sprint Freestyle Lane

Originally Posted by funkyfish

Recently I've been stringing my 25yd sprints into 100yd swims. First 25 is all out, then use the remaining 75yds as a recovery swim. Will do sets of 3s on a 2:00 interval, rest 1 minute, then start the next set. I'll also change things up by doing the 1st 25 no breath, hit the turn, and try 3 sdks + 2 strokes before my 1st breath.

As an aside, I find sprint training tougher than workout swimming. It's shorter, but hurts much more (at least for me).

I do something very similar on my sprint days,except I do the 1st 25 BR(because I'm a breaststroker.)

Re: The Sprint Freestyle Lane

Originally Posted by funkyfish

Recently I've been stringing my 25yd sprints into 100yd swims. First 25 is all out, then use the remaining 75yds as a recovery swim. Will do sets of 3s on a 2:00 interval, rest 1 minute, then start the next set. I'll also change things up by doing the 1st 25 no breath, hit the turn, and try 3 sdks + 2 strokes before my 1st breath.

As an aside, I find sprint training tougher than workout swimming. It's shorter, but hurts much more (at least for me).

We often do something similar to this, called Popov 100s. We do between 8 and 12 of them on 1:50 or so. Swim the first 35 all out, and the last 65 slower but with a strong 6-beat kick. Sometimes you have to switch strokes between the 35 and 65. This is definitely painful and probably not pure speed work, but similar to what you are describing. If you like what you are doing, give these a try.

Re: The Sprint Free Lane

I had to search through several pages of this forum to find this thread.
I figured it is to do the fact that the sprint free swimmers don't have time to post on the forums, with all of our sprinting that is tiring us out.

I tried to do a sprint-oriented workout with our group today. I think from now on that I will keep those workouts for my solo swimming days.

One of my favorite sets is 50 repeats (not sure on the interval) going under your second 50 of your goal 100 on each one from a push.

Re: The Sprint Free Lane

Originally Posted by KEWebb18

One of my favorite sets is 50 repeats (not sure on the interval) going under your second 50 of your goal 100 on each one from a push.

As a sprinter one of my favorite sets in college was 20 x 10yard sprints on 2:00 while the distance people got to do 6x800's For some reason they didn't seem to have appreciation for all the hard work we were doing in those 10 yards.

Re: The Sprint Free Lane

It's all about that feeling, true sprinters know that feeling, right at edge when you're thundering down the pool and you're feeling good and then BOOM, Captain Lactic Acid drops on you with both feet from a height of 6 feet.

Sure, distance folks have to deal with the Captain but it's more like the He grabs ahold of you and slowly pulls himself up your body.

The difference between distance and sprinting with regards to the Captain is the difference between analog (slowly climbs) and digital (one moment you're fine and the next you're a thrashing slug)

Re: The Sprint Free Lane

It's all about that feeling, true sprinters know that feeling, right at edge when you're thundering down the pool and you're feeling good and then BOOM, Captain Lactic Acid drops on you with both feet from a height of 6 feet.

Sure, distance folks have to deal with the Captain but it's more like the He grabs ahold of you and slowly pulls himself up your body.

The difference between distance and sprinting with regards to the Captain is the difference between analog (slowly climbs) and digital (one moment you're fine and the next you're a thrashing slug)

Paul, I've had that twice in the last week. Huge shakes and feeling like I was going to pass out for a long time after a fast sprint. Not a good feeling. I'll go back to the distance lane, thank you.

Re: The Sprint Free Lane

Ok, I pretty much know only 2 "sprint" sets to do for my workouts, 50's free on 3:00 all out and 25's on the 1:00 all out.
I am trying to get my 50 and 100 free times down, so over the next few months that is going to be my focus. I am looking for some good sets (I have read a few from Fort's blog) to incorporate into my training. FYI, I do most of my training solo due to my work schedule.
What are your favorite sprint sets?

Re: The Sprint Free Lane

Not related to the set questions...

Breakouts.

It's been probably 10 years since anyone has talked to me about breakouts on sprint races. What is the goal and how is it best executed? How much different is it from the normal race pace 50 sprint stroke? If different, how many strokes to the breakout before returning to the sprint strokes? Do you breakout on starts and turns or just starts. How much does one stand to gain if they have a good breakout versus a poor one? Tenths? Hundreths? How important is it to a 50 free race to have an excellent breakout?

I only vaguely remember working on this one day way back but I don't remember any of it and i never really analyzed things enough back then to ask these questions. Figured i'd ask here among sprinters